An absent-minded professor's blog.

Weight Issues: To Lose or Not To Lose

Just yesterday, our Communications Associate sent out a challenge to the entire company by coming up with a Biggest Loser sort of competition. Half of me wants to lose weight, but the other half keeps thinking about the first 20-something years of my life when I struggled with being stick thin and nearly shapeless (except for the definition of my muscles, which gave me a boyish shape).

At 118 pounds and having an ectomesomorph build, I am not overweight. I’m just not happy that love handles started appearing recently. I now have chub rubs, and I call myself “muffin top” when wearing jeans. Har har. So I rummaged through my old and recent photos and did a comparison.

Me at 100 pounds in 2008, with the measurements 32B-23-32:

Without working out, I have natural cuts on my abdomen and my biceps and triceps form easily. But as you can see…shaped like a boy.

I packed on the pounds 5 years later and with them, well, I felt like a woman. Haha. Except…I hated how my natural cuts seemed to have disappeared into oblivion. Plus my biceps and triceps were suddenly replaced with flab. I can’t even pose for a photo without moving my arms away from my body because you might mistake my arms for someone else’s thighs. Ugh.

Me at 118 pounds in 2012, with the measurements 36B-27-36:

So I am thinking, should I lose weight, or should I just tone? I’m still wondering what the best sort of exercise I could do without losing the womanly curves I’ve finally achieved. Leg raises and sit-ups bore me, and gyms make me think of hamsters.

Any fun suggestions for losing weight or toning?

In any case, I will try a new “diet” program that involves counting pesos instead of calories. (I do not want to use “weight-loss” because I normally gain weight whenever I tone up. Muscle mass is heavier than fat.) I will try it for a whole month and see where it takes me. Wish me luck!

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6 Comments

Haha I really need to start a yoga practice at my house because sometimes life and work just get in the way that I can't attend yoga classes. Plus, when I got back the results of my annual physical exam I was diagnosed as type 1 obese (of course I have my doubts about the relationship of BMI and weight and overall health), so that really shocked me to start doing something about it.

I'm very curious about Barre3 kaya lang ang layo. I used to dance ballet; I guess I miss the movement of dance, so I was drawn to vinyasa flow yoga 🙂 I've been finding some yoga videos in YouTube. I've been downloading some of them and I hope I get to try them out soon. Hopefully my also having bought a new yoga mat to finally replace my now flaky, now slippery three-year-old one from Toby's will motivate me to practice more by myself if there's no class.

Yun nga eh. It's so hard when we have day jobs. I'm only waiting for my paper to be completely polished so that I could free up my weekends for yoga/exercise. Kaya malaki talagang pagkakamali for me mag-aral at mag-hold ng production position at the same time. Dapat ginawa ko na lang yung ginawa mo na mag-stop mag-work while doing your thesis.

About The Author

Doc B is a crazy cat lady, a former behavioral scientist turned video game producer, and a full professor. She is an INFJ who is married to an INTJ game/software engineer. You can grab a copy of her book by clicking the book thumbnail below.